Marking, Feedback and Presentation Policy Introduction At El - PDF document

Marking, Feedback and Presentation Policy Introduction At El Limonar international School Villamartín, each school section and each subject department can have its own policy about how students must present their work and how that work must be marked. This policy document is designed to set out general principles to assist teachers, Middle Leaders and Senior Leaders, as well as giving parents an understanding of our school’s commitment to assessing individual pupil progress and to providing feedback to students in all areas of the curriculum. Managing the Marking Workload Marking student work is a fundamental element of enabling students to make progress in their education. It is also a time- consuming task that can drain a teacher’s energy and quickly takeover a teaching professional’s personal and family time. Research shows that it is not the quantity of marking done that makes a difference to student progress, but the quality of the feedback that the student receives. With this in mind, it is important to consider the suggestions made in Appendix 1 (see below) about managing workload when applying the ELIS Marking, Feedback and Presentation policy. Marking student work It is established in the ELIS Villamartín Assessment, Recording, Tracking and Reporting policy that the number of pieces of assessed work will depend on the subject content and the number of curriculum teaching hours and will be pre-determined at the beginning of the school year. Therefore, a sufficient number of pieces of student work must be marked and assessed in detail during each reporting period (usually of one term’s length). These pieces of assessed work must be marked carefully and consistently to ensure that: • A student can understand where they are making progress against targets • A student can understand what steps they can take to make more progress • Student effort and attainment is positively reinforced • Insufficient effort and attainment is consistently challenged and high expectations are maintained • All marks, levels and grades that are awarded are explained against assessment criteria Marks, levels and grades awarded for these assessed pieces of work must be recorded in markbooks and subject (or departmental) spreadsheet records that are currently moving onto the SIMS system Best Practice for Formal Marking: Best practice marking is through ‘Yellow Box’ marking at KS2 and above. This requires students t o reflect and act upon feedback that they have received and to show that they have understood the comments and

feedback from their teacher. It is hoped and expected that in Key Stages 2 to 5, ‘Yellow Box’ marking will become established practice during the course of the 2019-20 academic year. The ‘One Third’ Rule: Beyond the detailed marking of assessed work, best practice for feedback at ELIS Villamartín (except for our youngest students in EY and Year 1) should follow the ‘one third’ rule: • One Third of a student’s work should be assessed by the teacher. This should be done with written or verbal comment feedback which contain realistic targets and which are positive in nature, whilst identifying areas where improvement is needed or could be made. • One Third of a student’s work should be peer marked and assessed. Again this should be done with written or verbal comment feedback which contains realistic targets and which are positive in nature, whilst identifying areas where improvement • One Third of a s tudent’s work should be self - marked; or ‘self - assessed’ with students correcting their own responses and settling targets as appropriate. Acknowledgement of Student Work: Regardless of how each piece of student work is marked, all work must be acknowledged by the subject teacher. For peer and self-assessed work this could be a comment, a tick, a smiley face, a stamp, or through many other methods. Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar: All teachers, regardless of the age group or subject they teach, have a responsibility to help students develop and improve their written English, Spanish and third language. Whilst marking, persistent grammatical errors and common patterns of spelling errors should always be corrected and students given the opportunity to practise the correct formation of that word or grammar structure. Presentation of Student Work • Poorly presented work in poorly maintained notebooks must be challenged and students should repeat or redo work as necessary. Handwriting is important and lack of legibility will cause significant problems for a student in external examinations. Students should be challenged if a teacher believes that poor handwriting is as a result of rushed work or lack of effort. • With poor organisation, poor presentation and illegible handwriting, there is a possibility that the student might need additional support in order to correct specific additional learning needs. If a teacher has a concern about a student in relation to any of these aspects of a student’s presentation of th eir work, they should make a referral to the Inclusion department. • Pen and pencil must be used correctly at all times in accordance with school section policy.

Marking and Presentation Summary At ELIS we understand the importance of feeding back to students through commenting upon their work in relation to previously shared success criteria. At the same time, we are committed to acknowledging student efforts and reinforcing school standards. We also understand that marking and assessment is a time- co nsuming aspect of a teaching professional’s work that must focus on feedback and be planned carefully so that it remains manageable. Overall, whatever individual policies and procedures to manage marking are set out by school sections or subject areas, at ELIS we must ensure that: • The student understands that her/his work is valued by the teacher. • Feedback is fair and consistent throughout the school. • Feedback is meaningful for each individual. • Feedback is purposeful, enabling the student to learn how to improve and/or deepen his/her knowledge and understanding. • A student’s work is presented to a consistently high standard. • Teachers expect children to produce work of the highest quality that they can achieve. • All work is acknowledged and marked appropriately according to the task. Version 3 of this policy was devised and written by CE in August 2019. To be reviewed in July 2020

Appendix 1: Considerations and suggestions for managing the implementation of the ELIS Villamartín Marking and Presentation policy • Instead of taking sets of notebooks home, it is often better to give detailed feedback to a small number of children in the class during each lesson: Whilst the group are completing an activity or some peer marking, why not call four or five students to your desk and assess a piece of work in- depth with them alongside you? In four lessons you could complete this with the whole class group. • Only feedback on the actual assessment objectives of the piece of work that you are marking: If you find a repeated error (or possibility for improvement) in a student’s notebook, you could comment on it after a unit of work rather than on each individual piece. • Build time for students to peer and self-assess work into your lesson planning: If they have done a simple homework task they should be able to mark it together whilst you circulate the classroom and engage with particular students. • Inste ad of writing comments on each student’s notebook, why not read them, note down common errors or successes and provide feedback to the whole class on the whiteboard? Students can then note down your comments and feedback themselves and you’ve written it on ce instead of 20 times.

• Use stamps, smiley faces and merits to acknowledge student work in their books when you are not planning to assess in-depth. • It is vital that a teacher organises their time effectively for marking and assessment of student work. It is a good idea to write into your planning which Year Groups’/subject area’s work you will mark on different weeks of the academic year and prioritise certain groups just before reports, before or after exams etc. There is nothing wrong with saying to a class that you are postponing the marking of their work for a week because an A-Level group is your priority at that time for example: Students will understand and accept this, but they will lose interest and motivation if you simply don’t mark a piece of work without telling them why.